Occupy Wall Street -- just venting

[shootingstar]

I find it interesting that in Portland, OR the segments of the cycling community are actively organizing to support their Occupy ..ie. by organizing a bike swarm to protect the encampment, ....

bikeportland.org has the info.

Meanwhile last weekend I met a municipal politican locally in town when I was in the same bakery as he. He is a regular cyclist himself and big on designing/modifying communities to be more liveable which includes cycling infrastructure. He thought the cycling advocacy group's issues/desires would get all lumped in and confused with local Occupy Calgary.

Seems like there maybe differences in objectives per Occupy group across different cities.

I honestly believe that the original Occupy Wall St. is great to make issues of social justice, widening gaps of economic disparity, visible to the general public as a statement.

But fighting Wall St. and the financial sector that pays the minority CEOs, stockbrokers who get lots in their pockets, etc. ...requires sophisticated tactics long term head on to dismantle tax incentives that enrich the big corporations. All the mumble jumble covers up sophisticated, complicated corporate tax laws that on a technical point gives more avenues for corporations not to pay the govn't more tax. Ask anyone who is a corporate tax lawyer or an licensed accountant for a major corporation.

Sometimes I wish I didn't learn of certain things....after working for major international accounting firm that catered heavily to corporations worldwide.

The homeless issue is in some areas (in CAnada) caused partially by the greedy local real estate industry that is driving up the sale/value of homes and lack of co-op housing, affordable (safe, clean) rentals. Most certainly this is true for Vancouver, Calgary (more expensive now than it was only 8 months ago) and Toronto.